Maryland SB 225 “Environment-Publicly-Owned Treatment Works-PFAS Monitoring”
Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee
Hearing Date: February 9, 2023 Hearing Canceled
By Pat Elder
The Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant in East Baltimore. How much PFAS is going into the bay?
Maryland doesn’t care to know or it doesn’t care to tell us.
A bill that would have tracked PFAS at wastewater treatment plants in Maryland was withdrawn from consideration today.
SB 225 would have required the owner or operator of a wastewater treatment plant to (1) monitor “PFAS” levels in effluent, influent, and biosolids at least quarterly and; (2) report all “PFAS” monitoring data. The measure was introduced by Sen. Sarah Elfreth and Del. Sara Love. They changed the minds about it today.
The first step in regulating PFAS is identifying the deadly carcinogenic compounds and where they’re draining into our streams and rivers. The second step is about stopping it. It’s obvious that the new Moore administration is not up to the task. Most people still don’t understand how deadly these chemicals are. Until they find out, this negligence is likely to continue.
Hope welled up with this bill. Maryland would finally test the waters and the sludge! It won’t happen any time soon in Maryland.
Sen Elfreth and Del. Love let the disengaged Maryland Department of the Environment, (MDE) off the hook today. Del. Love sent this out to supporters, “I want to let you know that Senator Elfreth & I are withdrawing this bill. We understand from MDE that they are doing some of this testing already, albeit not as much as the bill would require. Given that it is a new Administration, we would like to cooperate with them and support them in their efforts on PFAS. Please know that Senator Elfreth & I remain committed to this issue, and if the Department does not follow through, then we will be bringing back legislation.”
MDE is reprehensible. They cannot be trusted. I have extensively documented their abuses of power and failure to protect human health. Del. Love says she understands from MDE that they are doing some of this testing already.
Nonsense. If they’ve been testing wastewater effluent, they’ve been keeping the results a secret. Maryland has only issued one discharge permit that requires monitoring for PFAS in effluent and biosolids. That permit, for the wastewater treatment plant at Naval Support Facility Indian Head, was issued in August 2021 and we still don’t have the results.
The MDE says it is working with utilities responsible for 15 municipal wastewater facilities on plans to conduct PFAS sample collections. That’s not good enough.
Here’s my testimony, for what it’s worth:
Wastewater treatment facilities at the following five locations in Maryland are contaminating surface water and poisoning aquatic life with high levels of PFAS contamination:
Piscataway Creek
Town of Chesapeake Beach
Naval Research Laboratory – Chesapeake Bay Detachment
Fort George Meade
Patuxent River NAS
We must stop PFAS compounds – especially PFOS - from entering our surface waters.
WSSC’s Piscataway WWTP
Landing a huge catfish from Piscataway Creek.
In 2021 the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) reported that 74 parts per trillion (ppt) of PFOS were detected in the tidal portion of Piscataway Creek not far from the point where the WSSC Piscataway Wastewater Treatment Plant discharges effluent into the Potomac River. The MDE also reported that the filet of a Largemouth Bass was found to contain 94,200 ppt of PFOS in the tidal portion of Piscataway Creek. MDE – See Table 6.
PFOS bioaccumulates in fish by factors that are thousands of times ambient water levels. Ask your counterparts in Minnesota. They’ve set limits of .05 ppt for PFOS in some lakes. Many states are ahead of Maryland in this regard.
The concentration of this deadly carcinogen in the popular sport fish is alarming. The EPA advises us not to consume water with concentrations of PFOS above .02 ppt. The levels in the fish are 4,710,000 times higher than this threshold.
MDE found that there were no environmental justice implications regarding the poisoned fish, but I have spoken to several African American men who regularly fish and consume fish from the creek.
The Town of Chesapeake Beach
Preparing rock fish in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland
On 6/10/21 the Town of Chesapeake Beach tested its wastewater being discharged into the Chesapeake Bay and found total PFAS at 506.9 ppt., including 11 ppt of PFOA and 3.2 ppt of PFOS. Hold the thought.
Naval Research Laboratory – Chesapeake Bay Detachment, Chesapeake Beach
A stream at the Naval Research Lab in Maryland picks up contaminants as it courses by the WWTP. The red X shows the location of the treatment plant.
During a Restoration Advisory Board meeting on May 18, 2021, the Navy displayed a graphic that showed levels of PFOS and PFOA at various locations in a stream that travelled from the fire training area on base to the Chesapeake Bay. Predictably, the levels of the toxins diminish as the stream moves away from the scene of the crime. The levels of PFOS dropped to 137 ppt before the stream passed by the outfall of the WWTP on base. Then, the PFOS levels spiked to 1,230 ppt as the stream passed by the WWTP, just a few hundred feet before emptying into the bay.
I tested the water as it coursed through the sand and into the bay and found 6,058 of total PFAS and 3,295 ppt of PFOS. You just can’t make this stuff up. I used a simple water test kit by Cyclopure, a firm the DOD uses.
Although much of the focus of PFAS being used on military bases centers on the firefighting foams, the toxins are also used in engine cleaning, wire coating, and chrome plating and they’re flushed into sewer drains. You must stop it. It’s my Maryland too.
In 2021 the Town of Chesapeake Beach tested oysters, perch, and rock fish for PFAS: (in ppt)
Species PFOS PFOA Total PFAS
Oyster 470 180 1,060
Perch 7,400 210 9,470
Rockfish 1,200 260 2,450
========================================
The EPA has set an advisory for PFOA in drinking water at .004 ppt, meaning that the levels in rockfish are 65,000 over that limit. We’re in trouble.
From the Town of Chesapeake Beach:
Oyster PFAS Data
Fort Meade
PFAS foam at a beaver pond on the Little Patuxent River.
I tested water in the Little Patuxent River just a few thousand feet downstream from two wastewater treatment plants and found 1,250 ppt of PFOS, 30 ppt of PFOA, and 2,306 ppt of total PFAS. See Cyclopure November 17, 2021.pdf
American Water Operations and Maintenance, LLC is the owner and operator of the Fort Meade Wastewater Treatment Plant, while Howard County’s Little Patuxent River Wastewater Reclamation Plant is just 100 yards downstream from the Army’s discharge.
Who knows which entity is most responsible for the pollution? This debate underscores the importance of this legislation. After I published my results, American Water was quick to point out the existence of the county’s WWTP downstream! “It’s not just us,” they said.
Patuxent River NAS
Having fun at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Air Expo 2018.
In May, 2021 an accident at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in St. Mary’s County sent 2,500 gallons of PFAS foam into the county’s Marlay Taylor Water Reclamation Facility. The Navy said the foam it sent down the drain is safe. The county’s wastewater director said the foam was sent, untreated, two miles into the bay. See my interview with George Erichsen, Director, St. Mary’s County Metropolitan Commission.
Pax River, as it’s known down here, has had numerous accidents of overhead foam systems that have repeatedly sent thousands of gallons of the carcinogens into the heart of the bay. DOD firefighting solutions have been shown to contain concentrations of PFOS of 9.5 billion ppt. They use lesser carcinogens these days, but these chemicals are killers, too.
Women who are pregnant or may become pregnant should not eat seafood from Maryland waters until they are proven to be safe. SB 225 is common sense legislation, although it’s just a first step in actually regulating these chemicals at our wastewater treatment plants.
Special thanks to the Downs Law Group for their continued financial support. We couldn’t continue to create these reports at this pace without their help.
The firm is working to provide legal representation and blood testing to individuals with a high likelihood of exposure to PFAS and other contaminants.
Interested in joining a multi-base class action law suit pertaining to illnesses stemming from various kinds of environmental contamination?
Join the Veterans & Civilians Clean Water Alliance Facebook group. (2.1 K members and growing rapidly.)
Military Poisons and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, US are continuing to raise funds to cover the costs of PFAS seafood testing in Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia, and Florida. You can make a tax-deductible contribution here. What’s in your fish? What’s in your blood?